The present invention relates to fiber optic light transmission. In particular, the present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for holding a fiber optic component during optical fiber alignment.
Optical fibers are a medium though which light signals can travel. Light signals can travel through optical fibers over long distances. However, as the distance increases, the light signal begins to experience a loss in optical power and intensity. To compensate for this loss, the light signal from the optical fiber may be input to a wave guide amplifier. The wave guide amplifier supplies energy to the light signal, increasing the optical power and intensity of the light signal. At the output of the wave guide amplifier, a second optical fiber is positioned in alignment with the wave guide amplifier to receive the reenergized light signal.
In order for the light amplification to be successful, the optical fiber containing the diminished light (the input optical fiber) should be aligned with the core of the wave guide amplifier and the core of the wave guide amplifier should, in turn, be aligned with the optical fiber receiving the amplified light (the output optical fiber). One solution is to align the input and output optical fibers with the amplifier and then glue the fibers into position with an epoxy. A problem with this technique is that in some instances the epoxy cures unevenly and pulls the input and/or output optical fibers out of alignment with the optical amplifier. In addition, in this technique, the only support to the underside of the input and output optical fibers comes from the epoxy itself, allowing the optical fibers to shift out of alignment with the optical amplifier before and/or during the curing of the epoxy.